Saturday, February 18, 2012

Cain and Abel, A Simple Story

The story of Cain and Abel is simple. Cain trusted in his human ability, the work of his hands for God. Abel trusted and leaned on God's ability. Able trusted fully in the work of God. Cain, having been shown the right way by God he was unrepentant. He was interested in what he could do for God and God better be impressed by his work whether he liked it or not. If God didn't like it, well then, if He wants blood He would see it, so he spilt the blood of Abel. What arrogance? (A shadow of the betrayal that would save us all in Judas, pharasees spilling the blood of Christ) .

Abel knew God was Able  so he gave a sacrifice to God that simply showed that he was RECEIVING God's salvation, just as we receive the work of Jesus as the Lamb sacrificed. He thus acknowledged God as the One who was able to save.

Thus, the sacrifice of bulls and goats was never something that could take away sins but a ritual that pointed to the real sacrifice off Christ that whoever looks to Christ shall indeed be saved. The sacrifice of bulls and goats and lambs was thus always about saying Lord we look to You as the One who saves, as the One who takes away the sin of the world. We look to the real Lamb to come who takes away the sin once and for all.

The sacrifice was thus always about salvation and the Mesaiah. Cain said no thanks to Your Saviour, I won't just kill a lamb i'll kill the man You are pleased with because he is casting a bad light on my human works.

Abel comes in humility declaring the coming of the Saviour. We come humbly receiving God's finished work of salvation that does not need our work. We say yes to the work of God. Yes! We look to the coming King Groom. We say"come Lord Jesus, come"

Monday, February 13, 2012

Beauty and Valentines


It is Valentines Day. It is a time to repeat classic poems such as "How do I love thee, let me count the ways". I am not one to celebrate Valentines Day I often dread it. A miracle has happened this time around I tried to rehate it as I do every year but I was not as successful. I will now count the ways with which I love.

Or like...

Without beauty there is no life. Beauty is what draws us towards anything or causes us to come alive. I am convinced that we come alive the moment we respond to beauty.

Personally, it is the reason I love God. I like God because He is the most magnificently beautiful Being. He is the author of beauty. He is all about bringing beauty, causing beauty, rescuing beauty wherever He sets food. He is the Creator of Paradise and Heaven. His throne is indescribably beautiful. He Himself is lovely, He is altogether lovely. He is outstanding in magnificence. He has no equals.

We all pursue beauty. We seek it in music, art and people. We choose beauty at every given opportunity.

You can call me vain but one glance of me and even the waiter knew the secret to my heart. I was in Cape Town last week and without being requested my waiter was divinely inspired to serve me tea from the finest cup he could find in his store. The cup was exquisite even to touch and hold. When I exclaimed with delight he informed us that he had particularly picked it to serve me in it because he knew I would love it. I am not a regular at that delightful restaurant so he did not do that because he had seen me before. My poor friend must have felt a little bit left out because she was served in a regular cup though even their regular is beautiful. I not only fell in love with their cup but tea itself was outstanding, infact I became a new convert to special french teas. That is how the French found a a place in my heart, with their delicious tea! French teas must be the best kept secret but I could have been the only person in the world who has been in the dark about this. The cake melted in our mouths it was fabulously delicious.

We worship and idolise what we find most beautiful. It is the reason we watch celebrities, how do they become so captivatingly beautiful? We don't want to be them, we want beauty, we hope to unearth it in ourselves as we read and read yet another magazine on how we can be beautiful.

It is never enough, yet there is one simple way to attain beauty forever. It is to gaze upon God's loveliness. It is the Psalmist David's ultimate desire "one thing that I desire, one thing that I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon His beauty all the days of my life" - psalm 27: 4

God is the perfection and embodiment of all true beauty. Flowers fade, beautiful people die, yet God's beauty never fades but it increases.
He makes life beautiful in a way that money could not buy.God is so beautiful and makes all things beautiful in its time. You can call me vain but what about God? He dwells in perfect beauty, there is no flaw in Him, not even a wrinkle and He is ancient. Really ancient.

Gaze, gaze upon His beauty and you will never feel as though you need to fix yourself but as you gaze upon the loveliness of Jesus, God's Son, as you are fixated to the perfection of His loveliness, you will be fixed by His beauty because you held His gaze. His perfect gaze interestingly does not make you compare yourself to His. His perfection never makes you feel small but it uplifts, it increases your faith and it invites you to become one with His. His beauty is the kind of beauty that penetrates your being and beautifies you from the inside because outer beauty without matching inner beauty is like washing a rotten fruit. You can polish it on the outside but you will bite rot and the corruption of what is inside of it will destroy you from the inside. It will leave a bitter taste in your mouth because it had sold you beauty but it was far from it, it was only a cover and you will be left feeling ugly.

So let us fix our eyes on Jesus whose gaze we become and are perfected to His image. Lie down and receive the beauty of God's perfect love, let it transform you. Let it iron out all the wrinkles

 
And God bless the young gentleman who saw it fit to serve me tea from his finest cup!!
 

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